Monday, February 23, 2009

more things to identify

For many years now I have resisted the temptation to plunge myself into the world of butterflying. Still too many birds left out there to see, I thought. So many other vertebrate taxa that I haven't hardly began to enjoy. But having taken a short-term job that will place me in the LRGV of Texas (a region known not only for its awesome Mexican birds but also its awesome Mexican butterflies) for at least part of the upcoming spring/summer. I decided to pick up a butterfly field guide and start learning some of these guys! In fact the field guide helped lead me to some other resources that allowed me to (tenatively) identify some of the butterflies I photographed in Mexico last year.

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All photos Copyright Vince Cavalieri unless otherwise noted. Do not use any of these photos without contacting me. If you want to use any of my photos for educational or conservation reasons please contact me at vince.cavalieri@okstate.edu

About Me

I am a wildlife biologist for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Michigan. I am the recovery program leader for the federally endangered Great Lakes Piping Plover (and also for Pitcher's Thistle a threatened Great Lakes endemic dune plant). I completed a master's degree in wildlife ecology at Oklahoma State University studying the ecology of Cerulean Warbler and other forest songbirds in the Ouachita Mountains and Ozark Plateau. I've been obsessed with birds and birding since I was a very young child. I hail from the boreal forest transition of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, making me a yooper. I attended Michigan State University for my undergraduate degree in Fisheries and Wildlife before migrating to the prairies of Oklahoma.